NORTH KOREA ON THURSDAY blasted new, smaller-scale U.S.-South Korea military exercises as an "open challenge" to the aspiration of Pyongyang, seemingly rejecting what had been a key compromise President Donald Trump made following a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last month.The fiery rhetoric followed numerous reports this week that North Korea has begun new activity to bolster its nuclear weapons program, despite White House assurances following the high profile February meeting in Vietnam that Kim was committed to denuclearization."The ill-boding moves of the south Korean military authorities and the U.S. are a wanton violation of the DPRK-U.S. joint statement and the north-south declarations in which the removal of hostility and tensions were committed to," North Korean state news service KCNA wrote, using its preferred acronym for itself. The statement described the new downsized exercises as "an open challenge to the aspiration and desire of all Koreans and the international community for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula."The statement represents a troubling escalation following South Korean media reports of new activity at a North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile plant in recent days, the same site Trump has said he would be disappointed to see rebuilt. Senior officials at the South Korean National Intelligence Service reported the movement of cargo vehicles around the Sanumdong factory in Pyongyang, according to the JoongAng Ilbo and Donga Ilbo newspapers.
NBC News, citing new details from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, reported earlier this week that North Korea was rapidly rebuilding its Sohae Satellite Launch facility and showed activity that is "consistent with preparations for a test." The site houses the technology that, if successful, could launch a missile capable of reaching the U.S.Can we now knock it off with the warm-letter rhetoric and the unfounded hope that the Hanoi skyline would have a pivotal effect on Kim?
It's time to see how useless and dangerous such a stance is.
So it's all back to the way we have been since the Armistice. Those previous prexies, chief among them Ike, werent so wrong. Ike was still right and good to stop the bloodshed. Something there is that stinks to high heaven in nuclear prolifertion for any and all humanity, despite claims to the contrary from the deadly prideful American exceptionalist camp.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, nuclear weapons are terrible. That's why the US needs a strong deterrent to any nut job regime using them.
ReplyDeleteThe US needs to lead the way in nuclear disarmament as it often tried to do pre-Trump, not stir up another arms race.
ReplyDeleteHow specifically are you using the term "disarmament"? Are you suggesting reinstating the terms of the INF treaty? Some other level that starts to move things in the direction of fewer nukes? Or something else?
ReplyDeleteNot my job to specify how. Thats why we elect, pay and pray for iur leaders But you go ahead and pound out a lengthy diatribe here and I will read it.
ReplyDeleteHi, my name is Mr. Dings and I make sure that no one can possibly take my positions seriously.
ReplyDelete